Nora Helmer and Kristine Linde are two totally different women. First of all,
Kristine is a widow, but doesn’t suffer of the loss of her husband. “ …
Not even a broken heart to grief over” p.8 The only thing she suffers from is
the fact of being all alone. She’s a very calm and wise woman. Nora on the
other side is like a little child in the beginning. She wants to do whatever she
wants; for instance she always eats macaroons behind her husband’s back.
She’s always very gay and singing. She’s very innocent and never thinks what
the consequences could be of her acts. She starts to panic once Krogstad
threatens her and wants to leave everything behind, so she wouldn’t have to
face the truth. ‘ But in God’s name, Mr. Krogstad, it’s quite beyond my
power to help you ‘ p.26 In the beginning of Act II, she’s completely out of
her mind and loses control over herself. She runs from one side of the house to
another, but doesn’t want to leave just in case someone would come to visit
her again or maybe even her husband. Luckily she has Mrs. Linde to talk to.
Kristine advises her and guides her very well. Thanks to her she finally gets a
hold of herself again. Mrs. Linde actually sacrifices herself and convinces
Krogstad to leave the Helmers alone and in return she would take care of him,
mother his children and finally marry him, like he had asked her many years ago.
‘I need someone to mother, and your children need a mother. We two need each
other. Nils, I have faith in what, deep down, you are. With you I can face
anything. ‘ p. 65 I think Kristine is a very strong woman and knows what she
wants and how to get it. Here she played with Krogstad’s old feelings for her
and still she convinced Nora to talk to her husband and tell him the truth about
everything. But even though she sacrifices herself in a way for Nora, she still
did what she wanted, because she didn’t want to be alone for the rest of her
life, and I think that is also why she agreed to marry Krogstad. Nora changed a
lot in the last act. When Mr. Helmer hears the truth, Nora gives up her last
hopes. She hoped for Mr. Helmer to love her enough to take everything upon
himself and help her out, but instead he insulted her. Because of his reaction,
she finally made her first decision as an adult. She tells him she wants to
leave him, because she needs to spend time with herself: get to know and respect
herself. This decision was certainly not easy to take, especially for a woman at
that time. It’s a decision that is worthy of respect and shows how much she
has grown strong. The character that has the most self-knowledge is Kristine,
because she already had the opportunity to spend some time with herself and
think clearly. She needed to take care of someone and feel needed.